BLACK-HEADED GULLS IN ESSEX (1899). 185
" On landing I discovered that the colony lay on the top of
the saltings, by some shallow pools of brackish water, left by a
very high tide, and there on the edges I found the nests. These
were slight, loose structures composed of dead reed stalks and
dried Zostera marina, barely raised above the level of the saltings.
A few nests were somewhat more substantially built and hence
more elevated, but none rose to any considerable height, and I
saw one or two eggs in mere depressions of the ground, with no
nest at all.
" There were certainly over 100 birds wheeling overhead,
and I found without any trouble about 40 nests ; I daresay there
may have been 60. Some were empty, some had one egg, the
majority held two eggs and one nest held three. I found two
fine young birds, one in the shallow pools mentioned above, and
another in a deep cut left dry by the receding tide. I dis-
covered two others drowned in the pools, a calamity for which I
cannot account.
" Neither of the young ones I found were fully fledged, and
they lay perfectly still until I touched them, but upon my doing
so one of them vigorously attacked my fingers with his soft baby
beak.
" Being well satisfied with the state of affairs I did not linger
long, and the piteous cries of the parents overhead was a further
inducement to be gone.
" This is apparently only the second year in which the gulls
have here bred on the saltings. Formerly they built a mile
further inland among the reeds and rushes of the freshwater fleets
and ditches, where they erect very large and lofty nests, and
about fifty birds are breeding there this summer. Mr. Cross, the
tenant farmer, who owns the marshes, takes a great interest in
the gulls and looks well after their protection, for which all
Essex naturalists owe him a debt of gratitude ; besides which he
is a keen sportsman and naturalist, and has many rare birds
stuffed in his charming farm at Lee Wick, such as Brent Geese,
a white Reed Bunting, and a Dusky Tern."
I paid a second visit to this gullery on July 7th, 1899, eleven
days later, and I have recorded in my log that there were only
two nests left with eggs in them. I found two more fine young
birds nearly fledged, but no others. The number of gulls seemed
to have increased, as I computed this time that there were nearly
200 to be seen.